Expert: Cleggsan - 10/10/2008

Question
hi. I own a 1994 buick lesabre. I have 4 12 inch kicker L5 solo baric subs, and an
audiobahn 2400 watt amp. I also have two audiobahn 6x9s and two audiobahn 5x1/4s. My
stereo was working greatly and then all of a sudden i heard a crackling noise in the
speakers. I turned it down and looked under the hood at my fuse. It was blown, which
is odd because it is a 300 amp fuse. I would like to know if it is possible that it
is because the ground wire came off, and that it caused crackling sounds. I went and
checked the ground and it was loose, but not haning off of the frame. I would like
to know if it is possible that that happened and that i could just replace the fuse
and make sure the ground is tight and have it work again. Please help me, i hate
having absolutely no sound from any of my speakers!  

Answer
Yes, a loose ground can cause erratic sounds due to the amplifier switching off and on when the ground loses it contact.

Check all the grounds and tighten them up.  Replace the fuse and check it out.

Most often a crackling sound, when everything else is working normally, is a loose voice coil or diaphrgam in one or more of the speakers.  This is most often caused by overdriving them with too much power causing the speaker elements to overheat and come loose.  If this is the case you can detect it by listening to each speaker up close with music applied.  They can often be repaired at a speaker repair place. In the worst case they must be replaced.

Let me know if you have further questions.

C